Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Please note that our privacy policy has changed effective October 18, 2017. If you submitted personally identifiable information to us prior to October 18, 2017 and desire to opt-out of having such previously submitted personally identifiable information treated under the new policy, please contact us at legal@apartmenttherapy.com.

Welcome to apartmenttherapy.com (our "Website"), an interactive online service operated by Apartment Therapy, LLC ("us", "we" or "our"). Please read the following to learn more about our Privacy Policy, which includes compliance with California Privacy Rights (see also //www.privacyprotection.ca.gov).

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting personally identifiable information you may provide to us through our Website (however accessed and/or used, whether via personal computers, mobile devices or otherwise). We have adopted this Privacy Policy (this "Privacy Policy") to explain what information may be collected on our Website, how we use this information and under what circumstances we may disclose this information to third parties. This Privacy Policy applies only to information we collect through our Website and does not apply to our collection of information from other sources, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other social media platforms.

This Privacy Policy, together with the Terms of Use posted on our Website, sets forth the general rules and policies governing your use of our Website. Depending on your activities when visiting our Website, you may be required to agree to additional terms and conditions.

We generally keep this Privacy Policy posted on our Website and you should review it periodically, as it may change from time to time without notice. Any changes will be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Privacy Policy. WHEN YOU ACCESS OUR WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY, OR TO ANY CHANGES WE MAY SUBSEQUENTLY MAKE, IMMEDIATELY STOP ACCESSING OUR WEBSITE. If at any point we decide to use your personally identifiable information in a manner materially different than what was stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users of this change by email to the last email address provided to us. Users will have a choice (by means of an opt-out opportunity) as to whether or not we use their personally identifiable information in this different manner. If you opt-out of the new policy, we will use personally identifiable information in accordance with the privacy policy under which such personally identifiable information was collected.

A. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Our Website typically collects two kinds of information about you: (i) information that you provide that personally identifies you; and (ii) information that does not personally identify you that we automatically collect when you visit our Website or that you provide to us.

1. Personally Identifiable Information:

Our definition of personally identifiable information includes any information that may be used to specifically identify or contact you, such as your name, mailing address, phone number, etc. As a general policy, we do not automatically collect your personally identifiable information when you visit our Website. In certain circumstances, we may request, allow or otherwise provide you with an opportunity to submit your personally identifiable information in connection with a feature, program, promotion or some other aspect of our Website. For instance, you may: (i) provide your name, mailing/shipping address, email address, credit card number and phone number when registering with our Website, using our online store or in connection with a contest entry; (ii) provide certain demographic information (e.g., your age, gender, purchase preference, usage frequency, etc.) when participating in a survey, poll or joining a club; or (iii) post a product rating and recommendation on our Website. Certain information may not be personally identifiable when standing alone (e.g., your age), but may become so when combined with other information (e.g., your age and name). Whether or not you provide this information is your choice; however, in many instances this type of information is required to participate in the particular activity, realize a benefit we may offer or gain access to certain content on our Website.

2. Non-Personal Information:

Our definition of non-personal information is any information that does not personally identify you. Non-personal information can include certain personally identifiable information that has been de-identified; that is, information that has been rendered anonymous. We and/or our third-party service providers obtain non-personal information about you from information that you provide us, either separately or together with your personally identifiable information. We also automatically collect certain non-personal information from you when you access our Website. This information can include, among other things, IP addresses (or some other unique identifier for the particular device you use to access the Internet), the type of browser you are using, the third-party website from which your visit originated, the operating system you are using, the domain name of your Internet service provider, the search terms you use on our Website, the specific web pages you visit and the duration of your visits.

B. HOW WE USE AND SHARE THE INFORMATION COLLECTED

1. Personally Identifiable Information:

The personally identifiable information you submit to us is generally used to carry out your requests, respond to your inquiries or in other ways naturally associated with the circumstances in which you provide the information. We may also use this information to later contact you for a variety of reasons, such as customer service, providing you with promotional information for our products or those of our affiliated companies ("affiliated companies"), or to communicate with you about content or other information you have posted or shared with us via our Website. You may opt-out from receiving future promotional information from us or our affiliated companies, or direct that we not share your information with any affiliated companies, as set forth below.

In certain instances we may also share your personally identifiable information with our third-party vendors performing functions on our behalf (or on behalf of our affiliated companies) (e.g., vendors that process credit card orders, deliver merchandise, administer our promotions, provide us with marketing or promotional assistance, analyze our data, assist us with customer service, etc.). Our vendors agree to use this information, and we share this information with them, only to carry out our requests. In addition, we may share your personally identifiable information with participating sponsors to a program or promotion (e.g., a sweepstakes or contest) you enter via our Website, and with third parties who assist us in using the content or other information you have posted or shared with us via our Website (e.g., production companies we may use). Further, we may share your personally identifiable information with third parties such as our co-promotional partners and others with whom we have marketing or other relationships. Except as provided in this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use, or as set forth when you submit the information, your personally identifiable information will not be shared or sold to any third parties without your prior approval.

2. Non-Personal Information:

In addition to any personally identifiable information or other information that you choose to provide to us on our Website, we and our third-party service providers may use a variety of technologies, now and hereafter devised, that automatically collect certain non-personal information whenever you visit or interact with our Website. We collect IP addresses for purposes of system administration, to report non-personal aggregate information to others, and to track the use of our Website. It is not our practice to link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable; that is, the visitor's session will be logged, but the visitor remains anonymous to us. However, we reserve the right to use IP addresses to identify a visitor when we feel it is necessary to enforce compliance with our Website rules or to: (i) fulfill a government request; (ii) conform with the requirements of the law or legal process; (iii) protect or defend our legal rights or property, our Website or other users; or (iv) in an emergency to protect the health and safety of our Website's users or the general public.

We use non-personal information in a variety of ways, including to help analyze site traffic, understand user needs and trends, carry out targeted promotional activities and to improve our products and services. We may use your non-personal information by itself or aggregate it with information we have obtained from others. We may share your non-personal information with our affiliated companies and third parties to achieve these objectives and others, but remember that aggregate information is anonymous information that does not personally identify you. Website usage information may be collected using various methods, such as the following:

(a) Cookies, etc.:

"Cookies" are small text files from a website that are stored on your hard drive. These text files make using our Website more convenient by, among other things, saving your passwords and preferences for you. Cookies themselves do not typically contain any personally identifiable information. We may analyze the information derived from these cookies and other technological tools we employ (such as clear gifs/web beacons) and match this information with data provided by you or another party. We may provide our analysis and certain non-personal information to third parties (who may in turn use this information to provide advertisements tailored to your interests), but this will not involve disclosing any of your personally identifiable information. Please note that advertisers that serve advertisements on our Website may also use their own cookies and other technological tools which are subject to the advertiser's privacy policies, not this Privacy Policy. If you are concerned about the storage and use of cookies, you may be able to direct your Internet browser to notify you and seek approval whenever a cookie is being sent to your hard drive. You may also delete a cookie manually from your hard drive through your Internet browser or other programs. Please note, however, that some parts of our Website will not function properly or be available to you if you refuse to accept a cookie or choose to disable the acceptance of cookies.

(b) Web Beacons:

Small graphic images or other web programming code called web beacons (also known as "1x1 GIFs" or "clear GIFs") may be included in our web pages and email messages. Web beacons may be invisible to you, but any electronic image or other web programming code inserted into a web page or email can act as a web beacon. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including to count visitors to our Website, to monitor how users navigate our Website, to count how many emails that were sent were actually opened or to count how many particular articles or links were actually viewed.

(c) Mobile Device Identifiers:

Certain mobile service providers uniquely identify mobile devices and we or our third-party service providers may receive such device information if you access our Website through mobile devices. Certain features of our Website may require collection of mobile phone numbers, and we may associate that phone number to mobile device identification information. Additionally, some mobile phone service providers operate systems that pinpoint the physical location of devices that use their service. Depending on the provider, we or our third-party service providers may receive this information.

(d) Embedded Scripts:

An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with our Website, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your computer from our web server or a third-party service provider, is active only while you are connected to our Website and is deactivated or deleted thereafter.

C. OTHER USES

1. Email Communications:

If you send us an email with questions or comments, we may use your personally identifiable information to respond to your questions or comments and we may save your questions or comments for future reference. For security reasons, we do not recommend that you send non-public personal information, such as passwords, social security numbers or bank account information, to us by email. However, aside from our reply to such an email, it is not our standard practice to send you an email unless you request a particular service or sign up for a feature that involves email communications, it relates to purchases you have made with us (e.g., product updates, customer support, etc.), we are sending you information about our other products and services, or you consented to being contacted by email for a particular purpose. In certain instances, we may provide you with the option to set your preferences for receiving email communications from us; that is, agree to some communications but not others. You may "opt-out" of receiving future commercial email communications from us by clicking the "unsubscribe" link included at the bottom of most emails we send, or as provided below; provided, however, we reserve the right to send you transactional emails such as customer service communications.

2. Transfer of Assets:

As we continue to develop our business, we may sell or purchase assets. If another entity acquires our company or all (or substantially all) of our assets, the personally identifiable information and non-personal information we have about you will be transferred to and used by this acquiring entity, though we will take commercially reasonable steps to ensure that your preferences are followed. Also, if any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding is brought by or against us, all such information may be considered an asset of ours and as such may be sold or transferred to third parties.

3. Other:

Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, we reserve the right to disclose any personally identifiable or non-personal information about you if we are required to do so by law, with respect to notices and counter-notices pursuant to our DMCA Notice and Policy and/or if we believe that such action is necessary to: (i) fulfill a government request; (ii) conform with the requirements of the law or legal process; (iii) protect or defend our legal rights or property, our Website or other users; or (iv) in an emergency to protect the health and safety of our Website's users or the general public.

4. Sweepstakes Contests and Promotions:

We may offer sweepstakes, contests and other promotions through our Website that may require registration. By entering any sweepstakes, contest or promotion, you are agreeing to the official rules that govern that sweepstakes, contest or promotion, which may contain specific requirements of you, including, except where prohibited by law, allowing the sponsor(s) of the sweepstakes, contest or promotion to use your name, voice and/or likeness in advertising or marketing associated with the sweepstakes, contest or promotion. If you choose to enter a sweepstakes, contest or promotion, personally identifiable information may be disclosed to third parties or the public in connection with the administration of such sweepstakes, contest or promotion, including, without limitation, in connection with winner selection, prize fulfillment and as required by law or permitted by the sweepstakes, contest or promotion's official rules, such as on a winners list.

5. Third-Party Email Promotions:

Occasionally we will send you an advertorial email from one of our advertisers/sponsors. These advertorial features are clearly marked as such by the emails "From" line and the title at the top of the article itself. The content is paid for by our advertisers/sponsors and does not reflect the opinions of our editorial staff. When you sign up for our emails, you are agreeing not only to receive our content delivered to you, but also to receive these occasional advertorial emails from our advertisers/sponsors. If you would prefer not to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe by requesting to be unsubscribed here and we will not send you any additional content or advertorial emails.

6. Your California Privacy Rights:

Residents of the State of California, under certain provisions of the California Civil Code, have the right to request from companies conducting business in California a list of all third parties to which the company has disclosed certain personally identifiable information as defined under California law during the preceding year for third-party direct marketing purposes. You are limited to one request per calendar year. In your request, please attest to the fact that you are a California resident and provide a current California address for our response. You may request the information in writing at:

Our Website may use third parties such as network advertisers to serve advertisements on our Website and may use traffic measurement services to analyze traffic on our Website. Network advertisers are third parties that display advertisements based on your visits to our Website and other websites you have visited. Third-party ad serving enables us to target advertisements to you for products and services in which you might be interested. Our Website's third-party ad network providers, the advertisers, the sponsors and/or traffic measurement services may themselves set and access their own cookies and other technologies on your computer and track certain behavioral information regarding users of your computer via an IP address or other device identifier. These third-party cookies and other technologies are set to, among other things: (i) help deliver advertisements to you that you might be interested in; (ii) prevent you from seeing the same advertisements too many times; and (iii) understand the usefulness to you of the advertisements that have been delivered to you. Note that any images (or any other parts of a web page) served by third parties in association with third-party cookies may serve as web beacons, which enable third parties to carry out the previously described activities. Third-party cookies, web beacons and other third-party technologies are governed by each third party's specific privacy policy, not this one.

To opt out of third-party tracking on our Website, use the following tools:

You may opt out of the Google Ad Network (Double Click) by clicking here and opt out of Google Analytics by clicking here.

If you would like to opt-out of having interest-based information collected during your visits to this or other websites, both the National Advertising Initiative (the "NAI") and the Digital Advertising Alliance (the "DAA") offer opt-out tools to assist you in managing your choices. Click here to visit the NAI opt-out page and click here for the DAA Opt-Out Page.

You may wish to visit NAI's Learn More Page to learn more about interest-based advertising and your choices regarding having this information used by third parties and your "opt-out" choices. Opting out through the DAA or NAI only means that those DAA or NAI members will no longer be able to deliver targeted content and/or advertisements to you, which will affect our Website as well as other unaffiliated websites, but does not mean you will no longer receive any targeted content and/or advertisements. Also, if your browsers are configured to reject cookies when you visit these opt-out pages, or you subsequently erase your cookies, use a different computer or change web browsers, your opt-out choices may not, or may no longer, be effective.

D. PUBLIC FORUMS

We may offer chat rooms, message boards, bulletin boards or similar public forums where you and other users of our Website can communicate. The protections described in this Privacy Policy do not apply when you provide information (including personally identifiable information) in connection with your use of these public forums. We may use personally identifiable and non-personal information about you to identify you with a posting in a public forum. Any information you share in a public forum is public information and may be seen or collected by anyone, including third parties that do not adhere to our Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for events arising from the distribution of any information you choose to publicly post or share through our Website.

E. CHILDREN

The features, programs, promotions and other aspects of our Website requiring the submission of personally identifiable information are not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 and believe he or she has disclosed personally identifiable information to us, please contact us at legal@apartmenttherapy.com. A parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 may review and request deletion of such child's personally identifiable information as well as prohibit the use thereof.

F. KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION SECURE

We have implemented security measures we consider reasonable and appropriate to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Please be advised, however, that while we strive to protect your personally identifiable information and privacy, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you disclose or transmit to us online and are not responsible for the theft, destruction or inadvertent disclosure of your personally identifiable information. In the event that your "personally identifiable information" (as the term or similar terms are defined by any applicable law requiring notice upon a security breach) is compromised, we may notify you by email (in our sole and absolute discretion) to the last email address you have provided to us in the most expedient time reasonable under the circumstances; provided, however, delays in notification may occur while we take necessary measures to determine the scope of the breach and restore reasonable integrity to the system, as well as for the legitimate needs of law enforcement if notification would impede a criminal investigation.

G. OTHER SITES / LINKS

Our Website may link to or contain links to other third-party websites that we do not control or maintain, such as in connection with purchasing products referenced on our Website and banner advertisements. We are not responsible for the privacy practices employed by any third-party website. We encourage you to note when you leave our Website and to read the privacy statements of all third-party websites before submitting any personally identifiable information.

H. CONTACT AND OPT-OUT INFORMATION

You may contact us as at legal@apartmenttherapy.com if: (i) you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy; (ii) you wish to make corrections to any personally identifiable information you have provided; (iii) you want to opt-out from receiving future commercial correspondence, including emails, from us or our affiliated companies; or (iv) you wish to withdraw your consent to sharing your personally identifiable information with others. We will respond to your request and, if applicable and appropriate, make the requested change in our active databases as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that we may not be able to fulfill certain requests while allowing you access to certain benefits and features of our Website.

I. SOLE STATEMENT

This Privacy Policy as posted on our Website is the sole statement of our privacy policy with respect to our Website, and no summary, modification, restatement or other version thereof, or other privacy statement or policy, in any form, is valid unless we post a new or revised policy on our Website.